biodiversity hotspot Archives - Page 3 of 4

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

1.5-minute read

Clever farmers in Kenya are lighting up the night for the love of lions. Because the big cats need big meals to maintain their body weight, which ranges from 280 pounds for females and up to 450 pounds for males, they are always on the prowl for large prey. In areas where people have settled in close proximity to increasingly fragmented wildlife habitats, lions are roaming into farm communities in search of food, leading to conflict that is contributing to the decline of the iconic African animals. Working alongside conservationists, livestock keepers around Nairobi National Park are implementing a simply ingenious strategy to help lions and farmers peacefully co-exist—the installation of flashing solar lights around livestock enclosures.

The bright idea was originally devised by an 11-year-old school student determined to find a non-violent method to discourage lions from helping themselves to the farm animals that his family depended on for survival. Since lions have learned to associate flashlights with life-endangering night patrols, they steer clear of light-protected enclosures. Now, a growing number of farm communities are successfully employing the light-fright-based technique to protect their livestock. By installing continuously flickering solar-powered LED flashlight bulbs around animal pens, participating farmers were able to reduce night raids by 96%. At a time when lion populations are in decline (43% over 21 years), this is roaring good news.

Paying careful attention to how lions interact with their environment enabled livestock farmers to come up with a simple solution to one of the sticky problems that can arise when humans and wild animals occupy the same space. Local communities and conservationists are continuing to explore innovative ways to live in harmony with wildlife, united in the common purpose of maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems and preserving Africa’s precious, natural heritage. Good for people, good for wildlife, good for the planet.

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Lisa S. French March 2, 2021

Charmingly Chubby Champion

1.5-minute read

We’ve got some exciting news about an important election! Forest & Bird, one of New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organizations, have announced the results of the 2020 Bird of the Year contest. The winner is—drumroll please—one of our favorite birds Down Under, and the world’s only flightless parrot, the charismatic, critically endangered kākāpō. Take a bow your royal feathered green-ness—no bird waddles quite like you!

Once widespread across New Zealand, the parrot’s populations have been decimated by habitat loss and the introduction of invasive predators. Although the number of kākāpōs has been increasing from a low of just 18 birds in 1977, according to the IUCN, there are currently only 209 on the planet.

The slow-moving, ground-dwelling kākāpō can live up to 95 years, given a fighting chance. Scientists continue to work intensely to save the rare species from extinction through captive breeding and identification and protection of safe habitat. The ultimate goal of conservationists is to establish a self-sustaining population of the beloved birds as part of a healthy island ecosystem.

You can learn more about the kākāpō and all of the beautiful Bird of the Year contestants here.

On a related creature-conservation note, if you’d like to help bee the change, through November 30th, non-profits, schools, and community organizations in the U.S. can apply to the Bee Conservancy through their Sponsor-A-Hive program for a custom bee house to host mason, leafcutter, and carpenter bees. While spring may seem a long way off, flowering plants in need of pollination will be popping up before you know it!

And since it is Monday, we leave you with a sweet, soothing dose of musical sunshine to help ease you into your week.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe and be well.

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Lisa S. French November 16, 2020

Crushing the Extinction Curve

2.5-minute read

Are there just about enough elephants? What is the right number of rhinos? Is there such a thing as an appropriate population of polar bears?

As we continue to monitor coronavirus numbers amidst the current round of hotspot whack-a-mole, conservation scientists are paying close attention to another important set of planetary health figures—rising extinction rates among the estimated 2 million documented species that make up the natural world. From the littlest lemur to the biggest tusker elephant, regardless of size, the unique genetic make-up of every species contributes to the diversity of life. And it’s that biological diversity that keeps our ecosystems stable and functioning, which is a really good and necessary thing for the well-being of all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Protecting and preserving the interdependent members of interconnected ecosystems is a massive, multi-faceted challenge. Is there a single target number that we should aim for that can be applied across millions of species to ensure that we can all keep on keeping on? Like the web of life, it’s complicated. Every species loss reduces diversity and weakens the web to varying degrees.

Scientists calculating how many species we can afford to lose have come up with a clear numerical goal to raise public awareness so that biodiversity conservation can be front and center as we make plans to protect nature better post-pandemic. According to their June 2020 report, the current rate of extinction is estimated to be up to 2,000 species a year—much higher than it should be so that Earth can continue to function as we like it. To help reduce extinctions everywhere on the globe, and to ensure that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place for proper planetary functioning scientists are recommending that we don’t exceed 20 extinctions a year across all species and ecosystems. From 2,000 to just 20.

Can we do it? To quote the stoic’s stoic, Marcus Aurelius, “…if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.” Through international cooperation, conservationists believe it is within our reach to reduce the number of species extinctions globally. As a case in point, despite a very turbulent year that has all but eliminated the tourism that provides critical support to conservation groups in biodiversity hotspots, Big Life Foundation continues to crush the megafauna extinction curve in Kenya. One of the most effective conservation organizations in Africa, Big Life protects and secures wildlife in 1.6 million acres of some of the most important natural habitat left in the world. And through the development of programs that benefit local communities, including critical health and education initiatives, Big Life also supports the people who will support conservation into the future. Winning hearts and minds through clever community-based conservation for healthy people on a healthy planet—most definitely humanly possible.

You can find out what’s currently happening on the ground in Kenya from Big Life’s conservation scientist Jeremy Goss and head of security Craig Millar here. If you would like to explore the strikingly evocative wildlife photography of Big Life co-founder Nick Brandt you can do that here. And if you’ve got any headspace left to monitor non-COVID-19 numbers, you can keep tabs on 95% of species known to science at the Catalogue of Life.

Before we go, we’d like to bid farewell to the smooth handfish. The last of its fish-fingered kind has officially departed the planet—the first modern-day marine fish to be declared extinct. We just got to know you, but we miss you already.

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Lisa S. French July 29, 2020

Protecting Forests to Prevent Pandemics

1-minute read

As we live with the daily reality of how rapidly and efficiently the frustratingly tenacious coronavirus has been spreading from points A to Z, a new study from Stanford University shows how protecting forests can help prevent the future transmission of zoonotic (i.e., animal to human) disease.

Close to 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. When proximity and interactions between humans and wildlife increase as a result of ongoing deforestation and habitat loss, the spread of zoonotic disease becomes more common. To reduce the risk of future virus outbreaks, researchers recommend planting forest buffer zones to create natural barriers to disease transmission, protect biodiversity, and provide alternative sources of food and fuel to forest-dependent communities. In a nutshell, to create safe roaming room for wild ones and help keep people and planet healthy—add trees.

If the unrelenting pandemic news cycle leaves you inert and feeling generally out of sorts, we empathize. During challenging intervals, we take comfort in knowing that there is still tremendous beauty to be found in the world, and difficult circumstances can sometimes inspire people—big ones and little ones—to create their own.

Until we cancel the coronavirus, hang in, stay safe, and be well!

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Lisa S. French June 30, 2020

Owl Alone

2-minute read

Just one. That’s how many Norfolk Island boobook owls (aka morepork owls) were left on the small, South Pacific territory of Australia in 1986. Decades of extensive deforestation of the large, old-growth trees the birds depended on for safe nesting had reduced the population of the small, spotted owls to a sole female survivor. With a shortage of trees to nest in and no other owls to nest with, the last Norfolk Island boobook was in reproductive dire straits—owl alone. In 1987, concerned scientists determined to ensure the world’s rarest owl wouldn’t be the end of her species’ genetic line came up with a conservation strategy for matchmaking in the wild.

When it’s a matter of preserving DNA representing thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation in a specific environment, it’s not as if any old owl would do for the lone bird’s mate. To ensure the offspring of the last Norfolk Island boobook would carry on her unique traits, Australian conservationists imported two male New Zealand boobooks, her nearest genetic relatives, for a species-saving liaison. The Norfolk Island boobook took to one of the feathered New Zealand fellows almost immediately, and the two owls produced five hybrid offspring. The population continued on an upward trajectory and by 1995 there were nine new hybrid owls resulting from the original Norfolk Island/New Zealand match up. It looked as if the assisted avian pairing had paid off. But in 2012, the birds hit another rough patch and stopped breeding for close to a decade.

To help overcome the dual pressures of invasive predators and habitat loss, avian ecologists from Australia’s Monash University added more nesting boxes and owl monitors to Norfolk Island National Park in hope of encouraging the birds to carry on. And in April of 2020, researchers made an exciting discovery—two utterly adorable hybrid owl chicks were located, putting an end to a long reproductive dry spell for a bird species perched on the edge of extinction.

Some may ask why preserving the genome of one little owl is so important in the grand scheme of things. There are many reasons to conserve species, including the right to existence, ethical considerations, and cultural significance, as well as maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conservation interventions that protect the island bird’s forest habitat can also benefit other threatened flora and fauna.

As conservation strategies go, most researchers agree that the intentional hybridization of endangered animals is far from a perfect solution. But when there is only one isolated bird of its kind remaining, as in the case of the Norfolk Island boobook, hybridization may be the only option left to maintain its distinctive genetic traits. There’s a saying that perfect is the enemy of great, and these owl hybrids are living proof because they sure look great to us. The last little boobook just needed a bit of extra help to be owl-right!

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Lisa S. French May 28, 2020

Adapting to Heartbreak

3-minute read

The rising numbers depicting the catastrophic loss and destruction caused by bushfires across Australia since September of 2019 are painfully difficult to comprehend: at least 28 people have perished, thousands have lost their homes, and an estimated one billion animals and at least 18 million acres (an area equivalent in size to the state of South Carolina) have been affected. Yet, even those heartbreaking figures fail to adequately reflect the long-term environmental impacts that may forever change the lives of many of the inhabitants of one of our most naturally beautiful and biologically rich island continents.

Australia is “megadiverse,” one of 18 countries representing 36 recognized global biodiversity hotspots and home to 600,000-700,000 species, including many which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. There are some you may have never heard of like the northern hairy-nosed wombat, spotted-tail quoll, and Julia Creek dunnart, as well as one you definitely recognize, the cuddly-looking creature most readily identified as a symbol of wildlife down under—the koala. A native resident of Australia for approximately 25 million years, the much-loved marsupial occupies the eucalyptus forests and woodlands of Queensland, Southern Australia, and two of the states hardest hit by the fires, Victoria, and New South Wales.

At the start of the 20th century, millions of koalas could be found across eastern Australia. As of 2018, the population was estimated to be somewhere between 47,000 at the low end and what is believed to be an overly optimistic 100,000. According to recent assessments, the number of koalas that have died or been injured in the 2019-2020 fires stands at approximately 30,000. The ongoing natural disaster that may have reduced the total koala population by more than one third in just a few short months has accelerated the decline of an animal species already facing urgent multiple threats to its survival.

Like many marsupials indigenous to Australia, koalas have evolved to survive the harsh environmental conditions of the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the driest inhabited continent on Earth. But rising average temperatures across Australia over the past five decades, resulting in more frequent and intense droughts and heatwaves, have severely compromised the koala’s ability to adapt. Exposure to prolonged high temperatures can lead to heat stress, dehydration and eventual death. A December heatwave in 2009 that wiped out an estimated one quarter of the koalas in the town of Gunnedah, New South Wales is just one example.

The tree-dwelling animals are primarily dependent upon various species of eucalyptus, or gum trees, for food, water and shelter. Adult Koalas eat a little over a pound of eucalyptus a day, also extracting moisture from the leaves. Because the leaves of drought-affected trees are less nutritious and produce less moisture, koalas need to eat more leaves to meet their daily dietary requirements, but habitat loss and fragmentation as a result of deforestation reduce the number of eucalyptus trees available to support populations. When forced to leave the safety of a tree-top refuge in search of food, water, or another suitable habitat as a result of climate-change-related impacts, the slow-moving marsupials also face the threat of feral dog attacks and car strikes.

In 2015, Australian researchers publishing in the National Academy of Sciences predicted that the effects of climate change will be magnified over the next few decades resulting in severe to catastrophic losses of wildlife. Just four years later, that prediction has become a reality. As the bushfires rage on, the fate of the koala and other rare and remarkable animal species hangs in the balance. By 2030, average temperatures in Australia are expected to increase by 1.5°C. The country will continue to be challenged by unprecedented physical manifestations of a warming world. Climate change mitigation, adaptation, and initiatives aimed at conserving biodiversity will continue to be critical to help ensure the wellbeing and livelihoods of the billions of people who depend upon the healthy functioning of ecosystems in Australia and around the world.

As the science of climate change evolves, we may take some comfort in its logic while making best efforts to develop adaptation strategies for ourselves and individual species, but when it comes to adapting to heartbreak, science has little to offer because there are many precious living beings on our home planet for which there are no substitutes once lost. Although we can’t reverse the irreversible or replace the irreplaceable, we continue to have hope, because hope may not point to a way back, but it can help guide the way forward. To quote author and historian Rebecca Solnit, “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency… To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable.”

You can help give hope to the suffering people and animals in Australia through these Charity Navigator rated organizations. And you can wear your heart on your sleeve for the land down under by purchasing a Fire Relief T-shirt for a limited time from our pals at For Love Of All Things (FLOAT). All proceeds go to support the recovery efforts of the Australia Koala Foundation.

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Lisa S. French January 14, 2020

Pouched Pademelons

If you’ve never heard of the pademelon, you are not alone. The medium-sized marsupial hopped right under our radar as well. We like to think we’re fairly species-savvy, so when we came across this featured creature courtesy of First Dog on the Moon, initially we thought, well, he’s just making that one up because he’s a cartoon dog, and that’s what they do. As it turns out, while the pademelon (Thylogale) may sound like some newfangled, furry fruit hybrid, it’s actually a long-footed, short-forelimbed, pouched member of the Macropodidae family native to the dense coastal rainforests of Australia and New Guinea.

One of approximately 250 species of Australian marsupials, the pademelon closely resembles its larger cousins, the kangaroo, and wallaby and is also related to quokkas, tree kangaroos, and wallaroos. There are seven distinct pademelon species, ranging in size from about 17 to 20 inches and weighing between 8 and 26 pounds, with grey to dark brown coloration and varied reddish markings. Pademelons are primarily nocturnal herbivores preferring to rest and forage in the safety of dense forest undergrowth during the day, emerging in the evening to feed on leaves, shoots, berries, and ferns, typically not straying far from the forest’s edge.

In contrast to egg-laying mammals (monotremes) like the platypus and spiny anteater, or placental mammals (eutherians) like dingoes and bats which give birth to well-developed offspring, marsupial mammals complete their development in a special maternal pouch following a short gestation period. After just thirty days in the womb, pademelon young are born blind and hairless but with functional forelimbs and mouth, which enable them to crawl into the pouch and attach to the mother to obtain milk. Newborn pademelons, called joeys like their kangaroo cousins, remain inside the pouch for approximately 200 days before being weaned at six to eight months and officially entering the world as independent hoppers.

So why pouches? While some theories suggest that both egg-laying and pouch-percolating mammals represent progressive steps in the evolution toward the eutherian stage of producing well-developed young, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) offer an alternative explanation: that the marsupial’s unique reproductive ability is not an evolutionary step but instead an advantageous adaptation in response to uncertain and adverse environmental conditions, which has helped them to adjust to the climate of the driest inhabited continent in the world. The ANU scientists believe that the marsupial pouch may play a critical role in the survival of the species by providing developing young with an anti-bacterial, temperature-controlled environment, as well as protection from predators while their mothers forage for food.

Although the pouched ones are more plentiful in Australia than in any other place on the planet and the continent’s dominant species, many marsupials are on the decline due to habitat loss, and impacts of global heating, including bushfires. Changes in the distribution of food, water, and shelter in Australia’s fifteen biodiversity hotspots as a result of reduced rainfall and increased drought frequency will continue to threaten their survival. Currently, four of seven species of pademelon are listed as endangered or vulnerable, as are other little known marsupials including the bilby, bettong, and potoroo.

If you would like to read a special WWF Earth Hour report on how a warming world will affect unique Australian wildlife like the pademelon, you can check it out here.

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Lisa S. French November 12, 2019

Exceptionally Eel-ectric

Compared to many of the creatures featured on Weekly Wondrous, the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) scores relatively low on the cuddlesome quotient, however, what the high-voltage South American river dweller lacks in animal magnetism, it makes up for in shock value. And the most shocking eel of them all, the new species Electrophorus voltai, was discovered this fall by scientists at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

But before we get to that electrifying story, perhaps you are wondering, “What are eels, anyway? Reptiles? Amphibians? Fish? Amphishians?” Strictly speaking, electric eels are not true eels but a species of electric fish—long, blade-shaped knifefish to be exact, and more closely related to carp and catfish than eels. The 800-plus species of true eels primarily live in saltwater, while electric eels can only be found in the murky freshwater habitats of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. It was there, in the highland waters of the Brazilian Shield, that the approximately 8-foot long, 860-volt-producing Electrophorus voltai was identified—the strongest living bioelectricity generator known to date. To put that impressive eel power into perspective, the human body is only capable of producing and transmitting between 10 and 100 millionths of one volt over a distance of approximately one-millionth of a meter, a fact for which those of us who travel by crowded subway are quite grateful.

Like all species of electric eels, the E. voltai produces its record-breaking current through the stimulation of thousands of synchronized stacked cells called electrocytes in three pairs of electric organs that take up 80% of the length of its body. The Smithsonian researchers theorize that the 30% increase in electricity-generating potential from the highest previously recorded E. electricus measurement of 650 volts may be an adaptation to the reduced conductivity of the waters where the E. voltai species began its evolution about 7.1 million years ago.

Electric eels make full use of their innate ability to self-generate jolts, utilizing their piscine electro-pulses for eel-to-eel communication, navigation, self-defense, and to locate and stun small fish and invertebrate prey. The objects of the carnivorous fish’s shocking attentions are captured through a highly effective two-step strategy, which researchers at Vanderbilt University have compared to a type of remote control. First, the eel transmits an electric pulse, which causes whole-body contractions in its prey, revealing its location, then a second shock is administered to immobilize the target for ease of swallowing.

In case you are curious as to how eels manage to avoid electrocuting themselves when they get down to their meal-zapping business, one hypothesis is that the amount of the electricity flow is small in proportion to the eel’s body but significant to the size of its prey, and of very short duration (about two milliseconds). In addition, a large percentage of the current dissipates into the water, further reducing its impact on the eel’s critical organs.

Studying and understanding how eels generate and transmit electricity has inspired all manner of technological and medical innovations that benefit humankind, ranging from the first electric battery in 1799 to the ongoing development of soft robots, cardiac pacemakers, and artificial organs. While an effort has been made to determine what it would take to run a Tesla Model 3 on eel power for one hour, the estimated requirement of 7,200 eels in 144,000 gallons of water indicates that particular research endeavor to be a non-starter for both the Tesla and the eels.

Two hundred and fifty years after the discovery of the first electric eel species in South America, the recent identification of the E. voltai in the same region is yet another compelling testament to the extreme importance of protecting and maintaining biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon. Given that approximately 85% of our planet’s flora and fauna remain to be discovered, it’s clear that preserving wild spaces is critical to the continued study of the living world. As biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson writes in The Diversity of Species, “We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.”

Full disclosure: While eels are clearly some of the most remarkable creatures on Earth and can be strikingly beautiful, we empathize if you are somewhat eel-averse as we confess to hyperventilating a bit while researching this one. However, since getting fish-zapped outside of the Amazon is a low probability event, we can rest easy and simply file these slippery fellows under “admire from afar.”

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Lisa S. French October 31, 2019

Tree-Planting Tapirs

If the Brazilian tapir’s eye-catching ensemble of creature features brings to mind ancient beasts, that’s because the shy, primarily nocturnal South American megafauna is one of the oldest species of large mammal remaining on Earth. The origins of this floppy-nosed, bristly-maned, odd-toed ungulate date back approximately 35 million years. For the ungulate-uninitiated, tapirs are Perissodactyls, hooved herbivores who like their closest relatives horses and rhinoceros, possess an odd number of toes. The Brazilian, or lowland, tapir is one of four widely recognized species of tapir native to the forests, grasslands, and mountains of Central and South America and Southeast Asia.

Measuring five to eight feet long and weighing between 300 and 700 pounds, the Brazilian tapir maintains its impressive bulk by consuming up to an equally impressive 85 pounds worth of shoots, leaves, branches, and fruit a day. As it turns out, the tapir’s hearty appetite for seed-bearing plants plays an important role in restoring degraded rainforests. According to researchers at Ohio State University, 80 percent of trees in the Amazon are dependent upon animals for seed dispersal. One of the primary “gardeners of the rainforest” tapirs ingest and expel a large variety of seeds that have future tree potential. Results of a recent study carried out by scientists at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute in Mato Grosso, Brazil, found that 99 percent of 130,000 seeds passed through a tapir’s digestive systems intact. Seeds that survive the digestive process are more likely to germinate. And here’s where it gets more ‘oh, wow’ interesting: the Mato Grosso study suggests that tapirs may prefer to browse and graze in degraded plots of land rather than in unspoiled forest. When sunlight hits the earth as a result of tree canopy loss in burnt or degraded areas, it forces up and reveals tender green shoots from the forest floor that are attractive to tapirs. The tapirs observed in the study spent about twice as much time feeding in degraded plots resulting in more seed “deposits” in areas in need of reforestation.

In the Amazon, wildlife depend upon healthy forest systems, and as the Ohio State and Mato Grosso research indicates, healthy forest systems depend upon wildlife. The Brazilian tapir’s natural capacity to contribute to tree planting can be an important factor in helping to regenerate carbon-storing, rainforest habitat. That is why protecting an umbrella species like the tapir also serves to protect other animals in its ecosystem.

Despite their aptitude for seed dispersal, Brazilian tapirs alone can’t compensate for elevated rates of Amazon deforestation. In addition, as a result of rapid habitat loss due to wildfires and ongoing land-use change, as well as illegal hunting, populations of Brazilian tapirs are decreasing and currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. The good news is you can help keep the hooved horticulturalists of Central and South America in their gardening groove by supporting the tapir research of Nai Conservation and the conservation action plans of the Tapir Specialist Group.

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Lisa S. French October 2, 2019

Rhino Redux

In honor of World Rhino Day, here’s a short but sweet update on our restoring rhinos post. On September 11, 2019, Ol Pejeta Conservancy announced a groundbreaking achievement in assisted reproduction: the successful creation of two viable northern white rhino embryos from the functionally-extinct species as part of the Bio Rescue research project. Bio Rescue is an international consortium of scientists and conservationists committed to pushing the frontiers of science in an effort to save the northern white rhino from extinction through the advancement of assisted reproduction and stem cell-associated techniques. A comprehensive risk assessment ensuring the welfare of egg donors Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos on Earth, was critical to the success of the project. The two embryos resulting from this pioneering work are currently being stored in liquid nitrogen awaiting transfer to surrogate mothers in the not too distant future. We’re keeping our ears peeled for the pitter-patter of dainty three-toed feet.

You can learn more about other dedicated global efforts to protect and preserve endangered species and the places they roam here.

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Lisa S. French September 22, 2019